Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

i installed my headliner today and had already prepped the walls with one coat of cpes and used their wood epoxy to fill some imperfections. i wasnt completely satisfied with the smoothness of the walls and the luan headliner surface. i do drywall for a living and i had a full can of crawfords free spackle paste that is in a plastic can and sells at rodda paints. one can of it was more than enough to skim the walls and headliner. it dried in a 1/2 hr and i just went over it lightly with a 120 grit sanding biscuit. dusted everything off real good and applied another coat of cpes. the cpes sealed right into the walls and spackle perfectly and with an hour i was able to put on my first coat of the sandstone color rhino top from the rot doctor. it looks like it all blended in great. it was alot easier than trying to float over the ugly stuff with their epoxy putty. hope this will help. by the way we use the crawfords free at work because its the only kind weve tried that sands smooth and easy unlike some of the spackle with the vinyl in it. that drues rubbery and is hard to sand smooth.

...thanks for tip on the Crawfords and the technique you used...might be of BIG help to others.................

My system was much the same as Broncos.

I wanted a painted surface that would not show the grain in the Maranti.

First I primed the wood (before it was installed), then I put on a coat of Home Depot's texture paint. It says something about "fibers" on the label, otherwise, I think it is drywall mud with a bit more binder, but I might be wrong!!

I painted it on pretty thick, then used a "panda paw" to texture the surface. When it was a little dry, I knocked it down with a trowel, and when it was very dry, I sanded the surface, before I rolled on two coats of oil enamel.

Right now it looks almost leather like. I intend to follow the same technique, though I am more than a bit leary of the HD "texture paint" outside.

Any thoughts on exterior texture?

dave

That is to say I want to have that same leather like texture on the outside of my tear, under a couple coats of oil enamel.

Would I dare use any dry wall product?

dave

This topic is of interest to me. If I use some sort of spray on finish, what is the best way to fill the grain so that it's shape does not show up in the final finish? Is typical drywall mud acceptable? CPES soaks into plywood and drywall mud without any problems? Or is there a better outdoors type of mud that would be better for grain/gap/crack filling? Some type of epoxy filler maybe?